cutthroat
by paired discontinuity
Summary: [AU] He thought it was a game, with DigQuartz as the battlefield. But when Kudou Taiki disappears without a trace, things start getting serious. They take a turn for the worst when it becomes obvious that not all players are playing by the rules. Of course, first they have to work it all out because time's tossed for a loop too.


Peace was a fleeting thing, even in the new age of the Digital World, and Sparrowmon could take little comfort from her newly-found niche. It wasn't much: a bare twig in a desert patch and the sky a plain stretch of blue above – but it was better, far better, than the rolling clouds and thunder flashes she had left behind.

Whoever had dreamed of paradise after their victory had been sadly deluded, though she couldn't deny Shoutmon did his best. But he – they – were up against an entire world after all: a world so broken that fitting the pieces back together like a jigsaw puzzle accomplished next to nothing. In fact, Sparrowmon sometimes wondered as to the wisdom of it all: those who had gotten accustomed to their secluded lives found themselves approaching their extended land with hostility. More often now she found herself firing her Zanahoria at Digimon she should have no quarrel against, and the times where she could simply stretch her tired wings and look up at the clouds were becoming few and far between.

If it were such a time now, she could enjoy it – except circumstances had sharpened her feathers so they shivered in the slightest wind. In this world there _was_ no such thing as peace: every shadow hid a danger, and every moving thing was a threat.

In the silence, that threat seemed only stronger.

* * *

 **cutthroat  
** _New Feathers (pt 1)_

* * *

The clattering clangs of voices could give anyone a headache, and for Zenjirou who much preferred to meditate in the gurgling river flow to the chaos of Tokyo's shopping district, it was doubly painful. But Kotone was excited, and he couldn't bring himself to dampen her mood by showing his own dispreference. And Kotone was company enough to make the clutter worthwhile.

Just as long as she didn't mention how Kiriha was dating Nene again.

He had to get over that childish crush, he knew. There were a million reasons he and Nene wouldn't happen and Kiriha wasn't even the first of them. Or the last. Or perhaps a very important one at all - considering he was a twig of a teenager and Zenjirou was pretty sure he'd best the other in a kendo match.

But he'd gone into a match with Taiki thinking that as well, and the other had trounced him, so maybe body build didn't have much to do with it at all. Or the size of their digi-cores.

But as long as nobody brought it up, it didn't matter. It was just him and Kotone and a hundred other people - or more - in the shopping district. Kotone with her auburn buns bouncing ahead of him. Kotone with her small but strong hands, suddenly pulling him along by the elbow.

And he couldn't think about much except for not tripping over his own two feet or someone else's after that, because it was a distinct disadvantage of being tall, when someone two thirds your height dragged you by the elbow along a busy sidewalk.

"Come on~" whined said short person as she continued to almost physically drag his whole weight across the street. "You've got legs. You can use 'em. Come on, they might be sold out by now." She was tempted to just leave him there and keep going by herself but her big sister would not be happy about that. she'd probably make someone worse keep an eye on her, like Kiriha. She didn't need any more stories about the battles of politics.

"Zenjirou-shan, isn't it humiliating for a kid like me to drag a giant like you?" she commented, store in sight. "Shouldn't it be the other way around?" She didn't give him a chance to answer however, as instead she had bolted inside the somewhat open door. The next order game was just waiting for her to play it, and she didn't want to waste any more time than she already had!

Of course, the only way to show this was to leap across the small game store and tackle the counter. "Do you have any copies of Digimon World -next order- left? in stock?" The grin on Kotone's face could rival the light of a lighthouse. Zenjirou needed a couple of minutes to catch his breath, so he actually couldn't stop her from doing as she liked, not that he could when he could breathe anyway.

For his part, the poor clerk just looked completely flustered. Poor fellow.

And Kotone had barely started her excited babbling. "Ooh, more plushies. How come you haven't got a Sparrowmon?" She pouted, and recognising the sign, Zenjirou caught her wrist before she could wave it in front of the poor clerk's face. 'Isn't Sparrowmon cool enough for -"

"Kotone!" Zenjirou didn't know whether to laugh or be exasperated, so he settled for a cross between the two. "You know they don't know the Digital World really exists," he whispered, before addressing the sales clerk more loudly. "Do you have next order?"

"Uhh...for pre-order only." He back-pedalled as Kotone's frown deepened, and Zenjirou let go of Kotone, realising that a semi-restraining scene came off as more threatening than a pre-teen getting over-excited. "We can...if you'll come over to the counter…"

"But then I have to wait!" Kotone complained, but she was happy enough to order the copy at the desk, especially when her dramatics managed to convince the female clerk behind the desk to give a little discount. Zenjirou unashamedly took advantage of that and ordered one for himself, which then led to a bit of a squibble about who'd pay for them.

"I'll stick Nee-san on you," Kotone said finally, knowing that'll cause the other boy to back off. "And then you'll owe me again!"

And Zenjirou really had to accept that, because, really, who could say know to an Amano?

Of course, he had to grumble about it a little."Seriously, Kotone, you owe me."

"No I don't!" She'd already skipped out of the store by then, and Zenjirou fumbled with the receipts before hurrying after. "Of course," She sprouted a devilish grin on her face, "I'm more than happy to charge you interest. Like...300%, maybe?"

"You're joking," Zenjirou muttered. He doubted the other even heard him over the pitch of the crowd.

And if she did, she wouldn't care. That was normally how she tended to be. When she cared, she could care too much anyway. Within seconds, he had nearly lost her in the crowd. Panic rushed up his spiky hair and he bolted after her, squeezing through people. Why was it so crowded out here today? Shouldn't people be at work right now? Apparently not.

"Kotone," he shouted. "Kotone, slow-"

He was cut off by the sound of something like a roar, of the air, howling its discontent. Then everything started to rumble. "Kotone!" Damn it, where was she? Being tall had its advantages in scanning crowds at school, but not in a crowds with adults too. Their heads were all in the way. Their broad shoulders. He couldn't see what was causing the noise or Kotone.

Nene was going to kill him. Literally. If the earthquake didn't.

But why wasn't anyone else running in terror? Why did it seem like they couldn't hear the roar, or feel the trembling world, at all? As though it wasn't in this plane. As though it was a song, like the digimelodies only Taiki had been able to hear…

But he wasn't Taiki, and he doubted digimelodies sounded like roars anyway. Though it did sound familiar, for some reason. Or maybe it was all the thinking about the digital world that was doing it.

He stopped running. The crowd flowed past him like it wasn't even there. Not a single elbow brushed his side. Not a single foot kicked his ankle. Not a single handbag knocked into his arms or his shin or even his face.

Something was off. Something was seriously off.

Lips moved around him. The sounds were gone. He tried again. "Kotone!" His voice rang, loud and clear, but she didn't reply.

Somebody else did. "Well, well. You're not a Hunter, are you?"

Well, what in the name of both worlds was a Hunter? "A what?"

The voice chuckled, raspy and deep at the same time "That answers that I suppose. Ah well, perhaps another time then. Everything has already begun. And ended. Well, until then, I suppose we'll just have to find someone else."

At the tail end of this sentence, Kotone popped back into view, waving her arms wildly and perched on a very familiar yellow jet plane. How he could see her in this crowd of people, he would never know.

"Kotone!" He bolted forward, and time seemed to start again. People jostled him. Some might have cursed as he shoved his way past, but now that he had found Kotone, he couldn't lose her again. "Where have you been?"

She turned at his call and grinned at him. Over the wave of the crowd, she waved something. Some new game console? No… That was her Xros Loader, wasn't it? Yellow, glinting in the high mall lights.

Why did it feel like he'd seen that colour on someone else's Xros Loader? There weren't even that many to get confused with. Nene's was purple. Kiriha's was blue. Yuu's was red - and that was it, right? So of course there wasn't another yellow one. Of course that was Kotone's.

But that still didn't answer why she was waving it around like it had all the answers.

Unless the digital world had whisked her away again, and because of the way time flowed, she'd come back before he'd even noticed she was gone.

He was that pathetic without a Xros Loader, wasn't he?


End file.
